Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Jean is, I think, raising other questions that as far as I'm concerned reinforce what the other members have said about the importance of moving forward on this. He talked about tendering a renewal of a contract. There's no indication that there was any tendering or renewal of the contract itself, just an announcement of a contract extension.
Another question that is extremely important is when the investigation began. Did it begin before or after the contract extension? It didn't come through a tendering process.
So there are a number of questions, and the more the parliamentary secretary speaks, the more I think it becomes evident that we need to have the minister come here to answer these kinds of questions. I certainly agree with some of my colleagues that CATSA as well has questions to answer.
I disagree completely with any idea that this committee has no mandate to investigate these kinds of situations. I feel quite the contrary: this is our responsibility. That's why we're elected to Parliament, to oversee.
When we see concerns such as a quarter of a million people receiving at best rudimentary screening, then it is our responsibility to say, whoa, there's a problem here. What has the government done about it? How are these contracts extended without tender? When are the investigations put into place, when serious security breaches like this are identified?
These are all questions that need to come forward, and I agree with my colleagues on this side that this is an important motion.